Canes 6, Sabres 2

Buffalo came into town tonight seeking their first road win. Carolina is looking to continue their hot play throughout October. After a tense first two stanzas, the home team got what they wanted. What follows is a period-by-period intermission update. Not liveblogging, but a distant relative.

First Period

Rod Brind'Amour scored just 38 seconds into the game with an easy goal from the left side of the net. Justin "Viva" Williams made a centering pass from the right wing through the slot. Ryan Miller looked confused, or asleep at the wheel, because when Brindy received the puck, Miller was way over on the right post with his back to Brind'Amour. He had to settle the puck a bit, but still had plenty of time to tuck it in. The early goal extends Brind'Amour's points streak to seven games. Officially, it was Brind'Amour with an even strength goal from Viva and Chad "Sharpie" LaRose at 0:38.

That woke Ryan Miller up, because he had to make a couple of dandy stops on Cory Stillman and Jeff Hamilton later in the period.

At 2:52, Jason Pominville netted a good-looking goal to even the score. Tim Connolly made a nice play down in the corner to fend of Tim Gleason, then hit Pominville with a pass near the right circle. J-Pom made a few fancy moves, then buried it from close range. Jochen Hecht picked up the secondary assist on the even strength goal.

Carolina was awarded three consecutive power plays, but they couldn't create much pressure, nor could they even keep the puck in Buffalo's zone. This is in stark contrast to Monday night, when Carolina spent the entire first period in the Canucks zone. Credit Buffalo for shutting it down.

The first period ended with Buffalo enjoying their first man-advantage, which will spill over to the second period.

No liveblogging here, but I'll update again at the second intermission.

Damn blogger. I had written a second period summary, but it got wiped away somehow.

Second Period
Ray Whitney scored a dandy goal at 3:15 on a quick shot after Viva and Brind'Amour worked the puck behind the Sabres' net. The shot was so quick that I didn't see it live, but it was sweet. Officially, "The Wizard" from Brind'Amour and Viva at 3:15.

Carolina committed two penalties on the same play to give the Sabres two minutes of five on three, and they wasted no time. Derek Roy slid a pass from the right wing across the crease to Jason Pominville, who easily beat Ward for his second goal of the night. Ward committed too much to his own left side, and couldn't slide over in time to challenge J-Pom. Pominville from Derek Roy and Tim Connolly on the power play at 15:32 of the second.

The second period ended with Carolina on the power play, which will carry over for the first 1:31 of the third.

So far, Brind'Amour (1/1), Williams(0/2), Connolly (0/2) and Pominville (2/0) all have two points. Who will emerge as the game's first star? Find out in 35 minutes.
Third Period

WOW!!

Carolina simply dominated the final frame, and ran away with a 6-2 win.

Eric Staal opened the third frame scoring on a very odd play. Bret Hedican launched a shot from the right point that went off Miller, off a defenseman, trickled to the left post, and Staal tucked it in. There was some contact with Miller, but it was allowed to go. Officially, Staal from Hedican and Keith Aucoin even strength at 5:48. That was Aucoin's first point this season since being called up to replace Erik Cole on Monday.

Carolina was given its sixth power play opportunity by virtue of a delay of game call, and they finally got past the Sabres' penalty killers. Jeff Hamilton launched a howitzer from the top of the right circle. Officially, Hamilton from Staal and Matt Cullen on the power play at 7:40.

At 10:44, there was another strange goal. Carolina was moving the puck around on the power play, spreading the ice. From a sharp angle at the bottom of the left circle, Mike Commodore fired a shot that found its way into the net. First it was credited to Cory Stillman, who was on top of the goal crease. Later, it was determined that the puck last touched Toni Lydman's stick. Still later, it was given back to Commodore. At this point, it stands as a Stillman goal assisted by Commodore and Hedican. The goal occurred exactly as a penalty to Tomas Vanek expired, so it is officially an even strength goal. At some point, the scoring should go to Commodore from Hedican and Ray Whitney. Quote me on that.

Bret Hedican continued his torrid third period by angling one in off the body of Andrej Sekera. Cory Stillman and Eric Staal got the helpers on the even strength goal.

There was, as expected, a little chippiness. However, it wasn't in the form of fights. There were none of those. As the Hurricanes scored goal after goal in the third, the Sabres got frustrated and committed some uncharacteristic penalties.

After having a breakaway chance denied by Frantisek Kaberle and Bret Hedican, Tomas Vanek went a little hard at Keith Aucoin along the boards, drawing a boarding penalty. This led to the "Stillman" goal.

Later, as time was winding down, Henrik Tallinder was called for roughing Ryan Bayda, bringing his hands and stick to Bayda's face. It wasn't cross-checking (which would probably draw a multi-game suspension), but it was awfully close. Not typical of his play, and there was no injury, so there won't be any argument over here. I'm sure it was just frustration getting the better of him.

Carolina definitely got some bounces in the third and decisive period, but they brought their A game to the final frame, putting 16 shots on goal for a game total of 42. Buffalo was called for four consecutive penalties (five, if you count the double minor high stick), but none of them were questionable. Carolina just won the period, and the game.

I didn't see how the FSS crew doled out the stars, but the "official" stars went to Eric Staal (third), Jeff Hamilton (second) and Bret Hedican (first). I have it a little different. The RBH three stars:
THIRD STAR Jason Pominville, BUF --- 2 goals
SECOND STAR Bret Hedican, CAR --- 1 goal, 2 assists
FIRST STAR Eric Staal, CAR --- GWG, 2 assists

Credit should be given to the Sabres PK units. They killed eight of nine Carolina power plays. Of course, they committed too many penalties, which put them in the spot of having to kill more than 16 minutes of power play, but they were pretty darn good.

Ryan Miller faced 42 shots. Twice as many as Cam Ward faced. The Sabres can't be happy about that, but he did a good job to keep it as close as it was.

Carolina's three game home stand closes on Friday with the Canadiens making a return visit. The dads are already in town, and they'll be joining the team as they go on the road over the weekend. For the first time, the moms are also taking part in the annual father/son weekend. According to everything in the N&O and everything that John and Tripp say, Bob Brind'Amour is a hoot. They all have a great time on the weekend, and I hope this is a tradition that becomes permanent.

Look for a write-up about Jeff Hamilton later. Maybe early next week, but hopefully tomorrow.

Your 2009 Kansas City Predators???

Just a few weeks after it looked for all the world like the Predators would be sold to Jim Balsillie and moved to Hamilton Ontario, Predators owner Craig Leipold has put an end to that. On Thursday, Leipold sent a big "Up yours, buddy" to Balsillie by saying that he will refuse the $238M offer. Instead, he is prepared to accept a $188M offer from William DelBiaggio, who plans to move the team to Kansas City.
TSN Story here

I love this. Balsillie has proven himself to be a giant bag of Summer's Eve, and deserves this Karmic payback for what he did with the Penguins. Unfortunately, the people of Hamilton will suffer. I feel bad for them, but they have Balsillie to blame.

The shiny new Sprint Center was built in Kansas City, Missouri for the express purpose of luring an NHL or NBA team to the city. It will open this year, and will most likely be the home of an expansion franchise of the Women's National Basketball Assosiation. This arena is ready to go, and would be available if there was an immediate relocation. There would be no need for a temporary home.

Good for Kansas City!

Here's the weird part though. From that same TSN article:

Kansas City, which recently built a brand new downtown arena, has been searching for a permanent tenant and recently made a pitch to try and lure the Pittsburgh Penguins to Missouri. The arena is managed by Anschutz Entertainment Group, which is owned by L.A. Kings owner Philip Anschutz.

DelBiaggio has an agreement with the Anschutz Group to own and operate an NHL franchise in the new arena.

So, in a sort of stretched out way, one NHL team would be paying rent to the owner of a different NHL team. I wonder how the concessions revenues would pay out. The Kings owner profiting from sales of Scouts merchandise? I'm sure they'd work somehing out.

More about the Hamilton Predators.

There has been a lot of noise made on this blog and others concerning the recent purchase of the Nashville Predators by Research In Motion CEO Jim Balsillie. There was also a bit of noise made (mostly by Mirtle) about Balsillie's recent land acquisition near Hamilton Ontario.

At first, I quickly drank the kool-aid on that one. After some careful consideration, though, that land acquisition seems way too small to have anything to do with the construction of an arena. Follow me for a second.

One acre is equal to 43,560 square feet. 25.7 acres is a total of 1,119,492 square feet. Looking around the league at the size of the arenas, most of them are roughly the same size. Using the Bell Centre in Montréal as an example, it is 351 feet by 479 feet, or 168,129 square feet. This refers to just the arena itself. Many other arenas have outbuildings or annexes, but this one is just the single building.

If you built a building like that on the Balsillie plot of land, you're left with 951,363 square feet. That sounds like a lot, but it isn't. At least not if you want to have any parking. According to some research that I've done, you need approximately 325 square feet for every parking space. This accounts for the parking space itself, plus the driving lanes between the rows, and other space necessary to make the parking lot functional. If you slammed the parking lot smack up against the building, that kind of land allows for 2,927 parking spaces. That doesn't allow for any roads on the premises or any landscaping, or any bus parking lots, or anything else. 2,927 parking spaces is not nearly enough. Especially if you're talking about an area that isn't exactly urban.

Parking garages tend to be more trouble than they're worth, and moreso as their scale increases. A garage/garages capable of handling 8,000 cars would be enormous, and would create a world of headache for fans entering and exiting the structure.

None of this talk has even gotten into the other infrastructural things arenas need like landscaping and bus lots and roads.

Could the parcel of land host an arena and an enormous parking deck? Theoretically, yes. Logistically and realistically, no. That land is for something else.

HOWEVER....

Earlier this week, in Gary Bettman's state of the League address, he claimed that Jim Balsillie had no intentions of moving the Predators. We all know this to be false, but reporters somehow spun Bettman's words into the misleading "The Predators aren't going anywhere". Referring to the "cure" clause in the Predators' lease with Nashville, what he actually said was

"If the attendance mark is satisfied, even if it's not, or if the city cures what would then be the default, this team is not going anywhere"

Even still, it's apparent that Balsillie has other plans. On Thursday, it was announced the the city of Hamilton has given Balsillie a thumbs-up to take over the Hamilton Place and Convention Centre (which includes the 17,500 seat Copps Coliseum) if he brings an NHL team there. Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger:

He has assured me that he wants to secure a team and he is interested in bringing it to Hamilton.

Quite different from Gary Bettman's quote when asked if Balsillie wanted to move the team:

"He told me that he did not"

Forget about the land acquisition. This is where the Preds would play.

Move the Preds to the Northeast division of the Eastern Conference.

To make up for the Conference imbalance, move the Thrashers to the Central division of the Western Conference. They're further west than Detroit and Columbus anyway.

To make up for the division imbalance, two moves have to be made. Move Boston out of the Northeast and into the Atlantic. Secondly, move Philadelphia out of the Atlantic and into the "Southeast" division. It'll break up some of the traditional division rivals, but there might not be another way to achieve balance. Rename the division. Better yet, rename ALL of the divisions. Ditch the geographic names and go back to the old school.